Weiss Schnee stood alone on the dueling stage, Myrtenaster drawn and eyes closed. She took a deep breath, imagining before her a horde of Beowolves. In the time she'd spent at Beacon, she'd long since refined her technique for dealing with the larger, lumbering Grimms one on one - she liked to think of giant-killing as a specialty of sorts – but hordes presented her with a greater challenge, and fighting them back was the greatest area in which she was in need of improvement, so that was what she had come to practice. Beowolves were weak as Grimm went, but they were also fast and always hunted in packs, and thus were perfect for these training sessions. Of course, she would only indulge in these sessions very occasionally, and then at odd hours so as to have the training area to herself and without spectators – image training may well be a legitimate practice, but Weiss didn't care to look the fool dashing this way and that to fight enemies that weren't there.

This particular training session took place at ten o'clock on a Saturday night; most students would want nothing to do with their training at such a time, her teammates included, which was exactly why she had chosen this time. Ruby and Yang had tried to convince her to participate in some manner of video game tournament over in Team JNPR's dorm with them, but of course she politely declined – study, study, study, after all – and Mina had her job, so she wouldn't be returning to the school for almost an hour. What Blake was up to, the Heiress wasn't sure, but she assumed it involved a book somewhere. Yes indeed, Weiss Schnee was, for the moment at least, alone and undisturbed.

When she opened her eyes, the stage was replaced with a rocky plateau. No escape, just her and the enemy. Her usual instinct in starting a battle would have been to launch herself forward to score the opening blow, but both training and the field had shown her that wasn't always the best move. When RWBY operated as a team, Weiss' Semblance made her a natural fit for an artillery and field support role while the others got in close, and that worked then, but the way Weiss figured it, there wouldn't always be others to work with.

As the first of the pack rushed forward to attack, she drove Myrtenaster down it's gullet, and as she withdrew the blade, conjured a series of glyphs to repel the rest of the mass of imagined Grimms before she lowered the barriers to catch the front lines in an arc of fiery destruction. Next, she skated backward on a glyph Dusting the ground as she went. When the slavering creatures pursued, the Dust that Weiss had left behind her activated, freezing them to the spot. Then a rearward Beowolf bounded up and over the ice, seeking to pounce upon her from above. In response, Weiss thrust her weapon upward to impale the threat as it descended, stepping forward to avoid the creature's dying embrace and withdrawing her sword as she did so.

Be strong Weiss…. Calm is the key in the face of adversity; you don't have the instinct for this like the others, but you can compensate for that. Act, don't react. Plan three, four, five moves ahead and control the battle…

Taking in another deep breath, Weiss thawed a section of her wall of ice, allowing the remains of the horde to pile through in a tangle of claws and bloodlust. Repurposing that same Ice Dust with a flick of the wrist, the Heiress formed hundreds of little icy barbs to launch at and skewer the first half-dozen or so beasts through her improvised bottleneck, and then with a quick flick back to the red setting, incinerated the next wave to come through. The battle was not won yet though, and the Heiress fought down the little sense of satisfaction she got from the sight of her enemies falling at her feet by the dozens in order to remain focused; the Beowolves who couldn't readily access the gate were starting to-

"Weiss?"

Like that, the Beowolves, the stony mesa, and the danger were gone. All that was actually left was the wall of ice and the smoke, "B-Blake? Don't sneak up on me like that!"

The Faunus girl chuckled, "Sorry to interrupt… I just thought I'd come to do some training myself…"

Weiss's shoulder slackened as she raised an eyebrow, "Did you now? Since when? Don't you usually just read?"

Blake glanced away for only an instant, but Weiss knew uncertainty when she saw it, "Don't you usually study rather than… whatever this is?"

Weiss' eyebrow twitched, "One can never have too much practice," Weiss shot back, "Did you really come here to mock me?"

"No…" Blake shook her head, "Sorry… I know we don't always… agree… but I honestly didn't come here for that… I didn't know you were here…"

Weiss sighed, still irritable at having been discovered, but what was there to do about it now?

"Fine, fine," She said, "But as long as you're here, you might as well spar with me; I could use the practice,"

"Sure,"

Nodding as she resumed a fencing posture, Weiss melted the ice that littered the stage, "Alright, no holding back, got it?"

Blake nodded in response as she drew Gambol shroud, "Right,"

Alright, now for a real challenge, Weiss thought as Blake assumed a fighting stance opposite her, Blake has actual combat experience prior to Beacon, and she's not in my head…

And then Blake was on her in a flurry of blows. Weiss parried three consecutive blows before riposting. Blake caught the blade by wrapping it in her ribbon. Not letting herself panic, Weiss pulled the trigger on her Dust chamber, discharging a brief plume of fire Dust. Such a small amount was harmless really, what with Blake's aura to protect her, but it was enough of a display to slacken Blake's grip and let Weiss pull Myrtenaster free again, before skating back on a glyph and firing off another volley of fire as she withdrew. She raised Myrtenaster to parry yet another oncoming strike from Blake, who appeared to be in hot pursuit, but when Myrtenaster's tip connected with nothing, Weiss converted the motion into a pirouette so as to simultaneously turn and make multiple slashing attacks behind her at the actual Blake. How she'd gotten there, Weiss had no idea, but worrying about those kinds of details in a combat scenario was a good way to get yourself killed, so instead she forced herself to adapt to the situation, catching Blake's next series of strokes on a barrier glyph instead and darkening the sigil with a twist of the wrist to pull her teammate turned sparring partner towards herself and off balance.

Dispelling the glyph, Weiss thrust her weapon forward, but halted it just short of Blake's sternum, "Blake, is something wrong?"

Blake glanced down at the rapier just below her chin, "You've… you've really improved…"

"Yes, I have," Weiss stated matter-of-factly, "But don't patronize me, that was too easy; you're off,"

Blake blinked a few times before lowering her weapon, "You're right… I just… thought a little practice would help me clear my head… I really wasn't expecting to find you here though…"

"All the studying in the world won't improve my reflexes," Weiss remarked dryly before her expression softened, "But enough about that, did you want to talk about… whatever it is that's on your mind?"

Sheathing Gambol Shroud, Blake let out a sigh, taking a seat on the edge of the stage, "It's Mina..."

"Hmm?" Weiss asked, interest and concern piqued, "Did you two have a fight?"

"No…" Blake stared at the floor, "It's just… Remember when she came home Monday night and told us about that new customer?"

"The girl?" Weiss raised her eyebrow, "Jealous after all?"

Blake snorted derisively, "Jealous? Not likely. Mina loves me…"

"She does…" Weiss nodded, "But…"

"But… she mentioned that she told this stranger a little… 'anecdote' about her mother…"

Weiss blinked a few times as she finished sliding fresh cartridges into Myrtenaster's chambers and finally sat down beside Blake and asked in disbelief, "That's it? You've been sweating this thing out for almost a week because she told some stranger a story about her mother? Don't take this the wrong way – I'm certainly no expert – but if that's the case mina might not be the only one in your relationship with issues..."

"Stop it…" Blake continued to stare at the floor, "I wouldn't care so much except… Mina doesn't like to talk about her mother… not even to me…"

Weiss raised an eyebrow to this, "Really? You two share… well… everything…"

"That's what I thought…" Blake nodded, "But then… it's not like she lied to me either; not really…"

"What do you mean?"

"She told me about it when I asked – about telling the story, I mean…" Blake clarified, "But when I asked her to tell me what she actually told that… that stranger…"

"She clammed up?" Weiss suggested.

Blake shook her head, "No… she said that she'd tell me if I really wanted to know… but she didn't want me to ask…"

Weiss turned to face Blake in surprise, but the Faunus girl continued to stare down at the floor, "She what?"

"That's what I've been having trouble with…" Blake admitted, "It's ironic but… she's kind of spoiled me, I guess… All this time and I never once thought that there would be anything she'd want to keep from me…"

"Hmmm…" Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, "I wouldn't have thought so either, but you're focusing on the negative – and I should know; in that much I am an expert," Weiss cracked a slight grin, "It sounds like she doesn't want you to know whatever this business is about her mother – maybe her mother was a human or something like that-,"

"Are you implying that Mina thinks I'm a racist?" Blake couldn't help but turn to Weiss accusingly now, "Because-,"

"No," Weiss cut back in, shaking her head, "But my point is that you shouldn't dwell too much on this; she said that she would tell you, right? She still trusts you Blake. For all either of us know, it's just a painful memory that she doesn't want to dredge up again… God knows we both have a few of our own…"

"But then why would she tell some stranger and not me?" Blake didn't much care for the pleading tone that found its way into her voice; even setting aside her pride, begging Weiss for answers she didn't have wouldn't solve anything, "I just… I don't know…"

"Well, neither do I," Weiss remarked unhelpfully, "But I don't need to, and to be totally honest, I don't think you need to either,"

"What?"

"Think about it Blake; last week you two celebrated her eighteenth birthday – that marks what? Eleven years you two have spent together?"

"Yeah but-,"

"If you ask me, whether or not you were 'together, together' - as Nora might say – the whole time is irrelevant. I mean, you hear the way she talks about you, don't you? She's wanted to marry you since she was ten years old, remember that?" Weiss made a sweeping gesture for effect, "Do you have any idea what I would give to have someone like that in my life?"

Blake raised an eyebrow.

"Oh don't give me that look!" Weiss gave Blake an annoyed little shove, "Mina is my friend Blake, but she isn't my type… too many X chromosomes, for a start,"

Blake couldn't help a little chuckle, "Yeah okay,"

Weiss huffed, "My point is that Mina is so absolutely devoted to you – never mind how dependent she is on you – that she's not going to leave you for some floozy who walks into her café,"

"People change their minds…" Blake's mood deflated again from the momentary reprieve.

"Not people like her," Weiss shook her head, "Remember when she kidnapped me?"

"Yes…" Blake answered tentatively; she wasn't sure where Weiss was going with this, and of all the mistakes that Mina had made, that was probably one of the biggest, "She changed her mind then too-,"

"No, she didn't," Weiss corrected, waving a finger reproachfully, "And don't talk like she's walked out on you either; she hasn't. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, the whole time, she thought that she was working towards what you wanted. The kidnapping was just supposed to be that extra nudge you needed to come back to the White Fang,"

Blake nodded slowly, "Okay…"

"And when she realized she was mistaken, what did she do?"

Blake winced, "She almost threw her life away…"

Weiss nodded, "Why?"

"She realized that I didn't want any of that…"

"Exactly," Weiss nodded, "Same motivation beginning to end; the 'change' wasn't of mindset, but knowledge. All of it was for you, the whole time," Weiss got down from her seat on the dueling stage, "So, knowing that, what does that say about your present little quandary?"

"That it's… probably all in my head… Blake admitted.

Weiss nodded, "Blake, Mina drinks blood – your blood from time to time – of all the things someone might want to hide for some selfish reason, I can't think of anything quite that severe, and yet that little trait of hers she freely shares with you and the rest of us - I know I wouldn't in her position – so if she still has something to hide, it probably isn't for the reasons you're thinking…"

"But then why?" Blake persisted.

Weiss shrugged with a sigh, "You wear that bow because you're afraid that people will judge you-,"

"That's not-,"

Weiss silenced her with a look, "You didn't want people like me, who suffered because of your actions, or people like Cardin, who don't need a reason to judge you for what you are rather than who, to know you were a Faunus. I get that, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry again that most Faunus still put me on edge – I'll admit that – but I'm not proud of it and I'm trying to be better; I suppose we're both kind of prone to pre-judging aren't we? But that's not something we want people to know, is it? Still, none of that matters next to drinking blood, wouldn't you say? Whatever it is Mina doesn't want you to know, it can hardly be that bad, can it?"

Blake thought about it for a long while before she responded. Weiss' words made sense, she supposed, but she couldn't help worrying about it. Weiss was certainly right about one thing though; whatever it was about her Mother that Mina didn't want Blake to know, it couldn't be worse than blood-drinking. Feeling a little wash of relief, Blake nodded.

"You're right… and… thanks?"

"Don't sound so surprised," Weiss rolled her eyes, "We may have had our differences in the past, but we are teammates, aren't we? I'd like to think that we're friends too,"

Blake nodded again, more energetically this time as she replied with a little smirk, "Fair enough… but since when did you become a therapist anyway?'

Weiss facepalmed, "Honestly, you just had to ruin the moment…"

Blake laughed, "Somebody's gotta lighten the mood or I'll get all depressed again – and it sure isn't going to be you,"

"How dare you?" Weis scoffed lightheartedly, "I am plenty of fun!"

"Prove it in a rematch?"

"Oh you are so on, Belladonna,"

Author's Note: Hello all, and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Now before we conclude I would like to get a few things out of the way concerning RWBY canon and Volume 2. First of all, this being an OC story, I can't keep 100% to canon, so there will be some deviation, but I will try to minimize it and have canon evens inform the story as much as possible. I do intend to involve most all of the canon characters (old and new) in one capacity or another. Concerning continuity, in my head, this story, way back in chapter one, starts shortly after the end of volume one, and because the passage of time isn't totally clear between then and Volume 2, I'm going to have to take certain liberties in setting events here on out more or less concurrent chronologically with the show, but as far as what actually happens beyond this arc, I'm going to play it by ear – hopefully it works out and you all still like it. Anyway, I always appreciate Favs, Follows, and reviews if you are so inclined, and without further ado, have a good one.